Infosys Consulting Interviews & Culture

Published: November 27, 2016

INFOSYS CONSULTING

Birthed in 2004 as a spin-off of Indian tech outsourcing behemoth Infosys Technologies, Infosys Consulting is quickly climbing the charts as an industry leader in IT Operations and Strategy consulting. The firm supports clients across 50 countries with a massive employee base of almost 135,000 people.

INFOSYS CONSULTING HISTORY

The Infosys Consulting story began in 1999. Agilent Technologies, separating from Hewlett Packard, turned to Deloitte to help facilitate the transaction and Deloitte in turn asked Steve Pratt to act as project lead. At the same time, a close friend of Pratt’s, Raj Joshi, was working hard, trying to develop new offshoring strategies that would keep Deloitte ahead of the field

Soon, Pratt and Joshi talked and Agilent became the first client Deloitte served using a global delivery model (GDM). After seeing just how successful the GDM was, Pratt began talks with Deloitte’s strategy group in the hopes of taking the whole company in this direction. After encountering roadblocks with the Deloitte bigwigs, the pair decided to approach Infosys Inc, an Indian multinational corporation based in Bangalore.

After flying out to Bangalore to pitch their idea, Pratt and Joshi were surprised to be given a meeting with the whole board of directors and went on to explain that their GDM would allow Infosys to undercut its competitors. Even though it sounded too good to be true at first, after running the numbers over and over again, they managed to show Infosys that they could become cheaper, faster and better than others in the field.

It didn’t take long, but Infosys Inc. agreed, offered up $20M in funding and Infosys Consulting was born.

For Infosys Inc., adding a consulting arm came at just the right time, as it let the company transition from being a custom software provider to an end-to-end solutions provider. Though companies like IBM and Accenture advertised themselves as end-to-end, Pratt believed they were not, which would work in Infosys’ favor. The problem, he reasoned, was that the history books were littered with examples of consulting firms and IT companies failing to mesh well.

To overcome this obstacle, Pratt set himself to studying the examples available and devising a strategy that would create a cohesive culture across the entire Infosys spectrum.

In return for the initial seed, Infosys wanted its consulting company to start life with a bang. Even though the pressure was on, Pratt and Joshi knew they would be able to draw on the Infosys name instead of starting from nothing. One of the problems Infosys consulted did face, however, was finding the right talent.

Infosys realized the importance of hiring the right people, especially in the beginning, which created a small dilemma for the new team. On the one hand, Pratt and Joshi wanted to take advantage of the Infosys name when carving out its space in the market, but on the other hand, creating an independent name for Infosys Consulting was vital if it wanted to attract top talent.

By crafting Infosys’ image of a firm of artists as opposed to a firm of scientists, Infosys Consulting managed to poach talent from rival firms, including IBM’s head of global retail. From the very beginning, Infosys Consulting exploded onto the scene, growing 700% by 2007. 12 years after its founding, Pratt is no longer at the helm, but Infosys is carrying on just as it started, hiring top talent and outperforming its competitors

INFOSYS CONSULTING ORGANIZATION

At the top of Infosys tree sits the board of directors, to which the CEO reports. Many of the board members sit on the board for both Infosys and Infosys Consulting as a means of ensuring both entities’ goals were in alignment and being met.

Though Infosys Consulting is its own legal entity, it is still considered a part of the Infosys umbrella, which has caused problems due to their differing business approaches. Since Infosys is an IT firm, it places a high value on predictability whereas Infosys Consulting was aiming to establish a service, not for predictability.

As an end-to-end solutions provider, Infosys Consultants’ goal is to solve business problems in the first case before seamlessly moving the client case up to Infosys who will solve the technology problems. As good as it sounds in theory, it’s much harder to execute in practice, which has lead to some friction.

When it comes to working on an engagement where there is some overlap between Infosys Consulting and Infosys Inc.’s scope of work, the current practice is for the consultants to stop and ask, “What’s in the client’s best interest?” Because of this, it’s not unusual for Infosys Consulting to advise clients to put a stop to Infosys Inc.’s work until fundamental business and organizational questions are answered.

For you as a prospective consultant, you’ll be walking a tightrope and serving two masters at once. Thankfully, Infosys and Infosys Consulting seem to be managing this tension well and working hard to make this complex situation as pain free as possible.

Practice Areas

Strategy and Architecture

IT Strategy

Application and Infrastructure Optimization

IT Operations

Technical Architectures

Business Transformation

Transformation Strategy

Transformation Program Management

Transformation Program QA

Enterprise Processes

Business Process Optimization

Supply Chain and Operations Processes

Finance and Controlling Processes

HR Processes

Enterprise Applications

HANA

SAP Template Design and Implementation

SAP Operational Excellence

SAP Technical Services

SAP (and associated applications) Implementation

Oracle-enabled Business Transformation

Digital Transformation

Customer Relationship Management

Multi-Channel Commerce

Customer Experience Management

Digital Marketing

Agile Enterprise

New Business Models

Insights and Analytics

Information Strategy and Governance

Master Data Management

Business Analytics & Big Data

Content Management

Change and Learning

Strategic Change

Change Enablement

Learning

Gamification

Industries

Telecom

Retail

Financial services

Resources

Automotive

High-Tech

Industrial Manufacturing

Oil and Gas

Utilities

Insurance

Career Path At Infosys Consulting

If you decided to work at Infosys Consulting, you can expect your career to go like this:

Exit Opportunities

When it comes to exit opportunities, Infosys is a mixed bag. Being the huge entity it is and working across so many industries, working there isn’t going to leave you short when it comes to weighing your options up. The biggest hurdle you’ll have to overcome is Infosys’ lack of brand recognition. Even though Infosys does high quality work, in enough fields that you could remain a generalist, the Infosys name simply doesn’t carry as much weight as MBB. That doesn’t mean, however, a career at Infosys Consulting should be sniffed at.

INFOSYS CONSULTING CULTURE

When Pratt and Joshi were building Infosys Consulting, one of the things they wanted to steer clear of was was the arrogance they thought embodied consulting in the 90s. As such, humility is a core part of the Infosys culture.

On top of this, Infosys Consulting has a strong commitment to providing customer service of the highest quality.

Infosys Consulting is also known for its entrepreneurial sprit since it encourages its consultants to be proactive and creative when it comes to getting and servicing clients.

One thing Infosys consultants love about their work is the variety. In general, strategy consultants are usually afraid of becoming pigeonholed specialists too early on in their careers. By offering entry level staff different projects across a number of fields, Infosys is able to keep its consultants engaged and invested in a way not many other firms can.

One interesting aspect of life as an Infosys Consultant is the integration of cultures between the Indian parent company, Infosys Inc. and the consulting upstart Infosys Consulting. To combat this, the top brass decided to organize a battle of the bands because they believed music transcends all cultural boundaries. Not content with being bystanders, Pratt, Joshi and other execs entered a band in the competition. Thankfully though, we don’t have any recordings of their set…

INFOSYS CONSULTING INTERVIEWS AND RECRUITING

Given Infosys’ complex structure, teamwork is high in the list of priorities. Consultants at Infosys Consulting are expected to not only have an excellent grasp of strategy, but it’s not considered acceptable for them to leave all the technology matters to the “propellor-head” engineers. Because Infosys’ focus is on the client experience, the interviewers want to leave no room whatsoever for internal discord.

Along the same lines, demonstrating cultural intelligence is also of the utmost importance, so be ready to demonstrate this during your interview.

Generally speaking, hiring at Infosys Consulting takes from between one week to a month. A HR person will call and schedule a personal interview or a conference call through Skype (depending on where you are located). Typically, after the Skype call, there will be another round consisting of a case and fit interview (make sure you brush up on that Mental Math!) with a senior manager or partner, and then the final round which is the negotiating round/offer round.